Delhi recorded peak temperatures of up to 47C in western neighbourhoods over the weekend, with the India Meteorological Department upgrading its warning for the National Capital Region from yellow to orange on Sunday. Heatstroke admissions to the city’s public hospitals rose more than fivefold week-on-week, according to data from the Delhi Health Department, with Safdarjung and Lok Nayak Jaiprakash hospitals reporting clusters of severe cases among outdoor labourers and rickshaw drivers.
Dust storms swept across the city from Rajasthan on Sunday afternoon, gusting at up to 60 km/h and reducing visibility on the Outer Ring Road to less than 200 metres in places. Three deaths were reported when scaffolding and hoardings collapsed during the storm: one in Dwarka, one in Karol Bagh and one in Ghaziabad on the city’s eastern fringe.
The Lieutenant Governor’s office issued an advisory on Sunday evening calling on construction sites to suspend outdoor work between 11am and 4pm and on schools to extend the existing summer-break order through mid-June. Several private schools that had planned to resume classes for senior students in early June have postponed those plans to July.
Power demand has set repeated records during the heatwave. The Delhi load on Sunday peaked at 8,532 megawatts, the second-highest single-day figure on record, behind only the all-time peak set in June 2024. State distribution companies have so far avoided rolling outages by drawing on emergency interstate exchange and on agreements with private operators in Haryana and Uttar Pradesh.
Air-quality conditions deteriorated alongside the heat. The Central Pollution Control Board recorded PM10 readings above 600 micrograms per cubic metre in 11 of 38 stations on Sunday afternoon, largely a function of the dust event rather than vehicular emissions. The IMD said the dust event would gradually ease over Monday and Tuesday as a western disturbance approaches the region.
Relief from the heat may come faster. The IMD said scattered thunderstorms are possible across the NCR from Wednesday, with a more general easing of temperatures expected by Friday as the southwest monsoon begins to push through southern India. Onset over Kerala is now forecast for May 30, three days ahead of the long-period average.
Across India, the heat picture is uneven. Mumbai recorded comparatively mild conditions in the low 30s with high humidity, while several districts in Karnataka and Tamil Nadu have already seen the season’s first significant pre-monsoon thunderstorms. Power demand at the national level remains within forecast.